THEIR HOSTILE DEMEANOUR. 103 
it might so be called, but remarked that they were painted 
and armed, as they generally are, prior to their engaging in 
deadly conflict. Notwithstanding these outward signs of 
hostility, fancying that our four friends were with them, I 
continued to steer directly in for the bank on which they 
were collected. I found, however, when it was almost too 
late to turn into the succeeding reach to our left, that an 
attempt to land would only be attended with loss of life. 
The natives seemed determined to resist it. We approached 
so near that they held their spears quivering in their grasp 
ready to hurl. They were painted in various ways. Some 
who had marked their ribs, and thighs, and faces with a 
white pigment, looked like skeletons, others were daubed 
over with red and yellow ochre, and their bodies shone with 
the grease with which they had besmeared themselves. A 
dead silence prevailed among the front ranks, but those in 
the back ground, as well as the women, who carried sup- 
plies of darts, and who appeared to have had a bucket of 
whitewash capsized over their heads, were extremely 
clamorous. As I did not wish a conflict with these people, 1 
lowered my sail, and putting the helm to starboard, we 
passed quietly down the stream in mid channel. Disap- 
pointed in their anticipations, the natives ran along the 
bank of the river, endeavouring to secure an aim at us ; but, 
unable to throw with certainty, in consequence of the 
onward motion of the boat, they flung themselves into the 
most extravagant attitudes, and worked themselves into a 
state of frenzy by loud and vehement shouting. 
